Re: The perfect night exporture ...

Tripod. Then practice and learn, practice and learn, you will learn more this way as there is no special formula to tell you what to do. We all do what you want however we all do it with somewhat different settings, which are learned through practice.

Re: The perfect night exporture ...

Use a tripod or better a firm support, use a low ISO, use the ten second release and do not hold/touch the camera during countdown and expiosure,appreciate that you are likely recording light sources which need less exposure so possibly the meter will give you a false reading. Accept that moving subjects will be blurred. Your camera is not designed for capturing low light action but will take excellent images if you keep the camera steady over the longer shutter speed the camera needs for a good expsoure.

Re: The perfect night exporture ...

Ahmed,

As suggested already use a tripod and any options to minimise camera movement.

If you are experimenting with night shots for the first time as a start allow the camera to use its automatic functions whilst keeping to a relatively low ISO. This will then give you an indication of the results with the cameras chosen settings.

Then switch to manual and adjust these initial 'auto' settings to achieve the results you want.

Re: The perfect night exporture ...

Steadiness when shooting is the benefit of using a tripod. However, if you have a handy support like a wall, table or even a fence, bracing your camera (with or without a bean bag) can provide a very solid support enabling shooting at slower shutter speeds. This is not a very versatile solution since you don't necessarily have a solid support available everywhere you desire to shoot.

However, if your camera can use a relatively high ISO and if you have a relatively fast lens and some sort of stabilization (such as the Canon IS), you can sometimes shoot hand held and get a reasonable image. I did these shots using ISO 800 (not particularly high but the best I could use with an older Canon 30D) hand-held, shooting at 1/25 second @ f/2.8 with a Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 IS lens with the IS turned on.

The reason that I did not use a tripod was that I was shooting from the back of a crowd over people's heads. Although, I would always want to use a tripod for night shots; I mention this because if for some reason you cannot use a tripod, try the shot anyway. After all, digital images are free and if you don't shoot the image, I can assure you that you won't have it. If you do shoot the image, either hand-held or bracing the camera in some mode other than a tripod, you "MAY", just "MAY" end up with a usable image!

Re: The perfect night exporture ...

Originally Posted by rpcrowe

Steadiness when shooting is the benefit of using a tripod. However, if you have a handy support like a wall, table or even a fence, bracing your camera (with or without a bean bag) can provide a very solid support enabling shooting at slower shutter speeds. This is not a very versatile solution since you don't necessarily have a solid support available everywhere you desire to shoot.

However, if your camera can use a relatively high ISO and if you have a relatively fast lens and some sort of stabilization (such as the Canon IS), you can sometimes shoot hand held and get a reasonable image. I did these shots using ISO 800 (not particularly high but the best I could use with an older Canon 30D) hand-held, shooting at 1/25 second @ f/2.8 with a Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 IS lens with the IS turned on.

The reason that I did not use a tripod was that I was shooting from the back of a crowd over people's heads. Although, I would always want to use a tripod for night shots; I mention this because if for some reason you cannot use a tripod, try the shot anyway. After all, digital images are free and if you don't shoot the image, I can assure you that you won't have it. If you do shoot the image, either hand-held or bracing the camera in some mode other than a tripod, you "MAY", just "MAY" end up with a usable image!

One more item if you use a tripod turn off the image stabilization and use the timer or remote release to keep the shake to a minimum.